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ELT Journal 2004 58(4):355-362; doi:10.1093/elt/58.4.355
© 2004 by Oxford University Press
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Reading strategy instruction through mental modelling

Susmita Pani1

1 English Language Teaching Institute Orissa at Bhubaneswar, India. Email: susmitapani{at}yahoo.com

Focus in recent times on realistic pedagogy implies that we can no longer depend on a transmission model of training, either for teachers or learners. We need to develop strategies that will help teachers and learners to be co-participators in the learning process. Mental modelling is one technique suggested in this article. It is a technique through which the teacher demonstrates the mental processes of a ‘superior’ reader while s/he makes sense of the text. Since this makes the process of reading ‘visible’ it is easy for the learners to imitate the steps. This article records the process and findings of a study with this technique in a teacher education course. The trainees tried to guess the meanings of unknown words in texts and then listened to their tutor’s mental modelling while doing the same task. Data was collected through transcripts of group discussions, mental modelling of the tutor, and retrospective notes of the tutor. Findings from the study showed that mental modelling can be an effective pedagogic strategy in Indian classrooms in terms of motivating the learners to develop improved reading strategies.

Received June 2003.


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